Impact
by JGTracy
Summary: Our fingerprints never fade from the lives we touch. Kara Jensen, older sister of Clay Jensen, knows the truth of this statement as she learns of her brother's involvement in the life and death of Hannah Baker. Adding a new perspective to the tapes and the story. Mostly canon, does become slightly AU but sticks to the main storyline. OC


**Hey everyone! This is my new fanfic, it's a Thirteen Reasons Why OC story just adding a new perspective onto the events that take place in season one of the Netflix series (not following the book). Enjoy!**

* * *

" Clay! If you take my car without permission again, I will smack you upside the head so hard your tiny little brain won't even—"

Kara Jensen slammed open the door to her younger brother's room and paused as he scrambled off his bed and tumbled into a heap on his floor, blankets trailing lazily after him.

" Hope you realize the time, genius. You're supposed to be at school already." Kara exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against his doorframe, taking in the sight of her awkward little brother. The seventeen-year-old nervous wreck in front of her merely shook his head, running a hand through his short brown hair as he chucked a pillow at her.

" I was distracted." Clay muttered, pulling himself up to stand in front of his older sister. Even though they were only two years apart, he towered over her, having inherited the genetic diamond that was his height from their father. Kara received a majority of her genetics from her mother, but her unlike the rest of her family, she had a very unnatural hair color—a radiant shade of rose pink.

" Ah, distracted. The typical male response at your age." She quipped, rolling her eyes. Clay snorted, making his way over to his closet to put on a fresh t-shirt. He froze when he recalled what she'd said when she'd first walked in.

" Wait… what time is it?" Clay questioned, jumping towards his alarm clock, his eyes bugging out as he took in the time.

" Shit! I'm going to be late if I take my bike… hey, Kara…" His voice turned sweet at the end of his sentence and Kara proceeded to glare back.

" You are _not_ borrowing my car, I have class at 1. However, for ten bucks, I will drive you to school." Kara smirked, knowing that her brother wouldn't have much of an option if he wanted to be on time to class, something he'd been proud of in the past.

Clay appeared to mull over his options for a few seconds before finally dropping his head in defeat and snatching his wallet off his nightstand. He fished out a $10 bill and handed it over to his sister, rolling his eyes as she kissed the bill dramatically.

" Downstairs in five minutes, I'll start the car." Kara announced, bouncing out of the room as she pocketed the easy money from her brother.

Clay slipped outside and into her car in under four minutes and Kara pulled out of the driveway with a ravenous speed that would frighten anyone who didn't know her. Clay, however, was used to her insane driving habits and braced himself before she slammed on the gas pedal.

They rode to school in silence, until the curiosity wore through and Kara found herself asking the one question she really wanted to know the answer to.

" Was it about Hannah?" Kara questioned, her eyes glued to the road as she drew closer to the school.

" Was what about Hannah?" Clay scrunched up his brows in confusion, but he had a feeling Kara already knew the answer to her question.

" The dream you had…the one you were so distracted with that you woke up late. Was it about Hannah?" Kara asked, this time her voice was softer and she glanced over at her brother with a sense of sincerity that he hadn't seen before.

" I suppose it was." Clay replied, but before Kara could ask any more questions, they had arrived at the school and Clay was already climbing out the passenger seat.

" Wait!" Kara yelled, but Clay had shut the door and disappeared into the crowd within seconds. Kara took a deep breath, putting her car back into 'drive' and leaving her brother and his ghosts behind her.

* * *

Kara drove to her class at one, arriving with a couple minutes to spare. She parked her car behind the main art building on campus and tossed her bag over her shoulder as she pressed down on her keys, hearing her car lock with a satisfying 'beep'. She shouldered the main door open and slipped inside the building as a blast of AC hit her.

Taking the stairs two at a time, she made her way up to the classrooms set up along the main corridor, and stopped at the third door on the right. She dropped down her art supplies and whipped out a key card, opening the door and making her way inside the small classroom.

Her eyes flickered up to the schedule written out on the board before glancing back down at her watch. She had a half hour before her students would start arriving and she still needed to meet with her professor and set up her classroom. She tossed her supplies onto the front table before cracking her knuckles and setting herself to work.

A half hour later she was ready to go, her lesson plan lain out in front of her as her students began to file in. She recognized her usual students, along with a couple of stragglers who had been bouncing from program to program due to their parents' heavy schedules.

By the end of class, the room was a complete mess, but their projects were a success and the kids were all smiling, and that's all that mattered to Kara. Her eyes drifted up to the clock and she cursed herself as she realized that Clay didn't have a ride home and it was almost three. Maybe if she hurried she could get to the school in time to snag him right as he was getting out of class. She'd even be able to fish more answers out of him regarding the Baker girl.

She was rushing to lock the door fifteen minutes after her students had left when a voice behind her startled her, causing her to drop a pile of assignments all over the hallway floor.

" Woah! I'm sorry, here, let me help you with those." A deep voice commented. She didn't get a chance to see the figure currently picking up her papers, but she could tell he wasn't a college student. In fact, he looked strangely familiar…

" It's quite alright, I'm just in a hurry." Kara admitted, bending over to pick up a few of the papers herself. Just as she had gotten all the papers shoved back in her bag, her phone buzzed and she snatched it out of her pocket, noticing a new message from Clay.

 **K,**

 **Ride home, no worries.**

 **C**

Kara frowned at the phone but shook it off as she finally got a look at the boy who had scared her half to death.

He was tall, that was for sure, taller than Clay even. He donned the infamous baby blue jacket that all jocks at Clay's high school wore. The look in his eyes said he knew exactly who she was, and she was unnerved by the fact that she didn't even know his name, until she noticed one of her students standing directly to the right of him, her hand gripping onto his jacket sleeve.

" Oh! You're Dempsey… Zach? I believe." Kara questioned, waving at his little sister beside him.

" Yeah, and you're Ms. Jensen from what I've heard. That name sounds familiar, are you related to Clay by chance?" Zach questioned, his eyes scrunching together as he looked her up and down, trying to see any similar features between Kara and Clay.

" I'm his older sister, actually. I never went to Liberty High though." Kara explained, crossing her arms over her chest as the boy in front of her continued to question her. He seemed sincere enough, but Kara didn't have an inkling of trust for anyone, so she was immediately suspicious that he'd ask her of her relation to Clay. Had her dingus of a brother done something to piss off the jocks?

" So did you skip straight from 8th grade to college then?" Zach joked, earning an involuntary laugh from Kara. She shook her head, moving to walk down the hall and pausing as she motioned for him to follow.

" Actually, I went to Bellbrook right down the highway, and I spent my junior and senior year taking college classes instead of normal classes so I'm graduating college in a little under a year now thanks to that." Kara opened the door at the end of the hall for the Dempseys and locked it shut behind them. They continued into the parking lot before Zach continued with his questioning.

" So are you and Clay pretty close then? I mean you can't be that far apart in age, you seem pretty young for a future college graduate." Zach smiled, approaching a convertible a few feet in front of them.

" I'm 19, he's 17. I'm the smart one, he's the… well, not sure actually, I never really pay attention to his brains. All I pay attention to is when he steals my car without asking. We were close when we were younger, but with everything going on in both our lives right now, we really don't bond too much anymore." Kara felt a wave of sadness wash over her as she realized that she really didn't know her brother anymore. She had only found out about his friendship with Hannah through a mutual friend, and hell, their parents didn't even know that they had been friends. And of course, everything with Jeff.

" I'm sorry, I really need to go. It was nice meeting you Zach, bye Amy!" Kara waved to the younger Dempsey as she turned and walked off to her car. She threw her bag in the passenger seat and waited until Zach drove off before she made her way back home.

* * *

" Hey genius, who did you haggle into giving you a ride—"

Kara's arrival in Clay's room scared him so much, he fell out of his desk chair and onto the floor. It was like very time she walked into his room, he was stumbling like a fish out of water.

" Yo, chill. Are you okay?" Kara questioned, looking genuinely concerned for her brother.

" I'm fine. Just have a lot of homework." Clay announced. Kara's eyes drifted over to the boom box resting on his desk and the shoebox full of tapes to the left.

" Quite an odd homework assignment you've got going on there. Anything I can help you with?" Kara questioned, knowing full well that her stubborn little brother would automatically decline her assistance.

" No! No, not at all. Nope, I'm okay. Thanks, I have to go actually. I'll be back!" Clay scooped up the shoebox and shoved it into his backpack, grabbing his sweatshirt as he skirted around Kara and into the hallway. He bounded down the stairs two at a time and disappeared out the front door after a quick exchange with their mother.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Kara slipped into his room, walking over to where he'd been sitting before. He had to have left something behind. He was acting so suspicious, and the way he just shoved all those tapes into his bag, he was definitely hiding something. Her eyes wandered over his crystal clean floor until she noticed something wedged between the back leg of his desk and the wall. She kneeled over, yanking the sleek cassette case out from where it lay and observing it with curiosity.

The case itself was interesting on its own, donning the number 5 in a delicate blue stroke of nail polish. She glanced at the tape inside, noticing both an 'A' side and a 'B' side. She shoved the cassette into her jacket pocket and slipped across the hall and into her own bedroom, locking the door behind her.

She tossed the tape onto her bed as she swung open her closet doors, searching for her old cassette player. Her father had always insisted that she listen to cassettes due to their sound quality, but she had hidden that thing away years ago and replaced it with her iPhone. She found the player hidden in a box of old junk she'd organized months ago, and she thanked herself for not throwing it out when she first went through the box.

Unraveling the pair of headphones attached to it, she placed them over her ears as she opened the case and popped in the cassette, side 'A' facing up.

At first she heard nothing, and she questioned if the old player still worked, but at that first breath before the sound began, she knew her brother was in trouble.

* * *

" _I got a question for you Justin, not the one you think, not yet._

 _What's the best part of high school? The great friends you make? The romance? No, we both know the best part of high school is summer break. It's the great reset button. And after everything that happened to me sophomore year, I couldn't wait to start fresh. To tear the rest of the pages from my journal and forget it all._

 _Except, I didn't get very far. At work, my usual partner in crime was spending the summer with his grandparents. His temporary replacement was nice enough, but entirely too normal. And I couldn't escape my past. I needed a change. I needed to be someone new._

 _Have you ever felt like that? I wasn't going to be invisible anymore. I was going to start brand new. I was going to cut away the past, and leave it all behind. I was going to work harder. Be smarter. And be stronger. Because you can't change other people, but you can change yourself."_

* * *

Kara hit pause, tearing the headphones from her ears as she realized what she was listening to. She'd heard that voice before. She recognized it from the times she'd visited Clay at the movies. It was his female coworker. She was always so happy and peppy when Kara visited Clay, but her voice sounded like the life was sucked from it, and Kara knew that this wasn't just some mix tape or random homework assignment, this was Hannah Baker. In some sick, twisted way, this tape was about her death.

Kara could hear the life draining from her voice as she spoke. She could practically picture the younger girl, sitting alone as she recorded these words. Had she already bought the razors at this point? Had she written out a letter? No, the police said there was no suicide note. Hannah Baker was alive and then suddenly, she wasn't.

Kara looked back at the cassette player resting on her lap, and as her finger hovered over the 'play' button, she shook her head, tossing the player under her bed and grabbing her keys off the desk. She had to find Clay.

* * *

An hour into her frantic drive around town, and she still hadn't found Clay. It was beginning to get dark outside and she'd asked her mother to let her know when Clay came home. So far, he was still out and about. Kara pulled into the lot of the high school and parked her car. She got out, snatching up her cell, and she made her way over to the football field. Her eyes lingered on the track that looped around the field and she bent over to tighten her shoelaces. She thanked her lucky stars that she walked around wearing running shorts and a tee and as soon as she hit the track, she started sprinting.

As she rounded the first corner, she tossed her phone onto one of the mats behind the football post. She could check it after she ran for a few minutes, at least that gave her incentive to make it all the way around the track.

Her feet slapped against the ground as she pumped her arms viciously, her hair whipping behind her as she ran. As she rounded the second curve and turned back towards where she'd placed her phone, she noticed a car pulling in next to hers. She didn't pause in her pace, and continued to run until she'd reached her phone yet again. She snatched it up, checking for messages only to find that Clay had still not gotten home yet. She cursed, wanting to throw her phone as far as she could and shatter it.

Instead, she turned her attention back to the car that had pulled up by hers, and was surprised to find a familiar face, along with some unfamiliar ones. Sighing, she tugged her hair into a loose ponytail and jogged back over to her car, slowing her pace as she approached the group of stereotypical jocks hanging around her car. A feeling of unease washed over her as she noticed one of them was blocking her door.

" Zach?" Kara questioned, addressing the boy she'd met earlier that day. He was leaning against her passenger door and his three other friends were strewn across the two cars, one leaning against her driver's side door while the other two lounged in the back seat of Zach's car.

" Hey Kara! Sorry for sneaking up on you, we were just looking for Clay and thought he might be around here. We weren't expecting to see you actually." For once, Kara believed him, but as her eyes drifted to his three companions, she found her unease rising.

" Well, nice story and all, but I'd like to find my brother as well, so if you'd excuse me." Kara moved for her door, but the boy guarding it had yet to move. She squared her shoulders and met his eyes, her glare evident on her pixie-like face.

" Justin, let's go." Zach announced, and Kara felt her eyes widen on instinct.

 _Justin,_ is this the same Justin that Hannah mentioned on her tape? She realized after she'd allowed her surprise to show that he knew about the tapes. His reaction was pure shock, quickly turned to anger.

" She knows, Zach. What, did little Clay fucking Jensen play them for the whole family to hear? I told you dude, we're fucked." Justin exclaimed, pushing off her car door and stepping away to scowl at Zach.

" Look! I don't know what you have against my brother, or why you're obviously following me—cause I don't buy that bullshit for a second—but stay the fuck away from my family, or you're going to have more than a dead girl to worry about." Kara hissed, nearly coming chest-to-chest with Justin. His cold blue eyes bore into hers and she felt her fists clenching in anger as he stepped back and climbed back into Zach's car. She waited for the rest of them to climb in, but Zach remained still.

" What did you hear?" Zach questioned, a note of sincerity in his voice. She didn't trust him one bit, but she knew that he was concerned about something on those tapes, and she didn't feel like lying.

" Look, to ease your paranoia, I found a tape wedged between Clay's desk and the wall and I was curious because he was being a little too suspicious for my liking today, so I listened to the first couple of minutes of it before I turned it off and left it in my room. All I heard was Justin's name and something about summer break." Kara exclaimed, turning to face Justin as she spoke. She noticed him pale at the mention of this, but he merely shook it off, an angry expression still plastered on his face.

" Listen, Kara, please stop listening to that tape. Those tapes are for Clay, and he shouldn't even be listening to them either. They do more harm than they do good, so just get your brother to stop listening to them, please. Get home safe, okay?" Zach whispered the last part to her and she just nodded, opening up her car door and slipping inside.

* * *

Kara pulled into her driveway within the hour, finally giving up on her search for Clay. She realized on her wild goose chase, that perhaps it was best that she not mention her knowledge of the tapes to Clay. Zach had said it himself, those tapes weren't any of her business, so what if she confronted Clay about them and that led to some awful fight between the two of them? She couldn't do that, so she decided to just head on home and forget that she'd ever seen the tapes.

Funny thing is, she couldn't seem to do that either. It was as she was returning the tape she stole to its original spot that she hatched a plan. She backtracked into her bedroom, closing the door as her eyes met the old junk box she'd dug out of her closet earlier. She tossed the tape back onto her bed and plopped down on the floor, emptying the contents of the box in front of her.

It took some digging, but eventually she found what she was looking for. She tugged the old cassette tape from its container and hopped up, snatching the tape she'd stolen from Clay and comparing the two. Perfect! They were the exact same size. Her plan would work and Clay would have no idea. She couldn't just start from the tape she was on though, clearly there was an order to these things, and she had a feeling Clay was still working his way through the first one. She'd just have to keep an eye on him and wait for him to finish before she could swap the tapes and listen to them herself.

It was the perfect plan. No one would be the wiser. She'd just have to be careful around the boys that she'd run into earlier. It was clear to her that they had a hidden agenda when it came to those tapes, and she didn't want her brother getting sucked into their bullshit. If any of those punks even laid a hand on her brother, they'd have to deal with her.

She returned the tape to her brother's room and stuffed the blank one in her nightstand. Once Clay finished the first tape, she'd make her move.

* * *

The next morning, Kara was waiting outside Clay's door, waiting to take him to school. She knew he'd want to take his bike today, but their mother had let her know that he'd gotten into a bit of an accident last night and cut his forehead open, so she asked Kara to give him a ride so he wouldn't get injured again. Kara was more than happy to oblige if that meant she could get some answers out of Clay, even if that meant she couldn't ask them directly. She knew how to read body language, she just wanted to get a reading off of Clay and see how he was feeling.

As soon as the door to his bedroom opened up, she was latched onto him like a leach.

" Gooooood morning Vietnam!" She announced, quoting one of her favorite movies. Clay merely grimaced, rolling his eyes at her overdramatic tendencies.

" Kara, it's too early for this, what do you want?" Clay questioned, tugging on the straps of his backpack. She noticed the bandaid firmly plastered to his forehead and she winced, imagining how he must have gotten the cut.

" It's not about what I want, it's about what mom told me to do, and mom told me to give you a ride to school today – No objections!" Kara beamed up at her younger brother and he just snorted, motioning for her to lead the way.

The ride was shrouded in awkward silences, and as much as Kara tried to talk to her brother, he was too lost in his own thoughts to even give her the time of day. He was easy to read though, and Kara knew that whatever was on those tapes was breaking his heart.

She dropped him off a few minutes later with a smile and a wave and she watched as he walked towards the school, hoping that the jocks she'd run into yesterday wouldn't try anything. Once he disappeared into the crowds, she let out a sigh, her hands clenching on the wheel as she shifted her car into 'drive' and made her way back home, mind reeling with more questions and no solid answers.


End file.
